Western Illinois University
The School of Law Enforcement
Abstract -
Background: There have been multiple instances of terrorism domestic and abroad. Between the tragic events of the Oklahoma City Bombing to the Twin Towers attacked on September 11, 2001 there is a high probability that another attack could happen on either a train or the use of an automobile again. These attacks forced our country to ensure our planes are safe to fly on from future threats/attacks that terrorists will make an effort to find other holes of weakness in our infrastructure through our transportation systems.
I remember as though it happened just yesterday. It was a bright and sunny morning with so much promise, triumph, and hopes to be accomplished. It was a normal day at Lake Zurich High School. I was a sophomore sitting in my Spanish class when over the radio, on a local news station; we began hearing something about a plane accidentally hitting theWorld Trade Center. People on the radio thought it was just a mistake or bad piloting skills. It wasn’t until later, another twenty or so minutes passed by, when another plane intentionally hit The World Trade Center! Everyone stood in shock and awe at the sight of this unforgettable tragedy. It was as though we did not know what to do! I felt myself thinking, how do we help those people in the buildings that were burning; those poor innocent people who were falling to their deaths from the towers collapsing? Like many of my peers I did not understand the enormity of this event at first. When realizing that this attack was not accidental, I felt this overwhelming surge of anger, fear, sadness and a strong sense of a need for justice overwhelmed me.
That emotionally painful morning of September 11, 2001 was an undeniable turning point for all of America. The man who led the attackers was a well known terrorist named Osama Bin Laden, who previously attacked usin February of 1993. This 1993 attack was coincidentally at the same place. This coincidence brought many questions to the minds of Americans everywhere. Could this tragedy have been prevented? Was there more that our government could have done? Some of these questions have been answered and some have not. Nevertheless, one thing we can all agree on is that we never want anything like the tragedy of 9-11-01take place ever again.
During the weeks and months after September 11th, it was almost as if you could hear the America’s pulsating heart still bleeding with grief. The U.S. became unified once again unlike anything our country has seen and felt for decades. People’s everyday lives revolved around what had happened and what was going to happen. I heard about it on the radio, it was all over the internet, there were commercials, newspapers, and magazine articles written. People always had something to say about that day in their daily conversations. It seemed for a moment in time, a very troubling moment, we came together to help our fellow man. Not long after the collapse of the two towers; the sky still blackened from all the ash, the ground and people completely covered in soot from the still burning remains of concrete;rescue workers started searching for survivors and slowly clearing away the rubble. It took months to clear the debris. With the help of the American Red Cross along with multiple law enforcement and fire agenciesand volunteers from all over America, who each brought a vast variety of backgrounds skilled with handling disasters; onthe scene working day and night, the rubble was eventually sifted through. Some survived, but unfortunately many died. It was so sad to see how many people were missing on the cork boards and pictures pinned up on the walls and telephone poles just outside ground zero.
It didn’t take long for people to start pointing fingers, trying to figure out why this tragedy happened and playing the blame game for this unprecedented act of terror. Our country wanted answers, so there were political ads made and Hollywood of course wanted to capitalize on this tragedy. This angered many of us, but more importantly we wanted peace of mind and our security and safety restored once again. Osama Bin Laden and his group of attackers brought us to our knees and shattered the coveted ideals we had about thefallacy of our safety, security and wellbeing of ourheartland. Additionally, on that fateful day, we realized thatour country is not absent from attacks. We are not a special, unique or even less prone to an attack just because we are the United States of America. Our society has programmed our minds to believe that we are this indestructible and unstoppable force. We were forced to change and adapt the way we lived our lives prior to that morning in order to overcome the pain and despair caused by these awful events. We all fell into a state of unbelievable shock by how hate, ideology and prejudice can drive men to such horrific acts…Something had to change! Something had to be done! In order to amend the holes of knowledge, we needed to restructure, readjust and rethink! We needed to create STRONGER, more reliable security protocols within an existing machine that would be beneficial to our needs as time moves forward in order to form a more perfect nation which foresees possible future attacks from here and abroad.
The President at the time, George W. Bush went to survey the damage at ground zero. He evaluated what took place and went to Capitol Hill to amend the problems with our security policies. Over the next few months, President Bush addressed the country many times in order to keep Americans updated on the progress of the response to the attacks on 9-11. An article on the BBC website states, 1“Soon after that speech on Monday November 25, 2002 former President Bush signed the bill to create the Department ofHomeland Security and said, ‘Today we are taking historic action to defend the U.S. and protect our citizens against the dangers of a new era. Creating a new department called Homeland Security and will ensure that our efforts to defend this country are comprehensive and united. We are fighting a war against terror with all our resources and we are determined to win!’ ” After signing this bill into action, public transportation civil liberties as we know it would be forever changed,hopefully for the better.
We have multiple forms of transport to apply security protocols to: planes, trains and automobiles. It seemed as though only airports were the focus of this bill, which makes sense considering the plane was the main form of transportation used to attack the TwinTowers, The Pentagon and an unsuccessful attack on The White House. Keeping that in mind, it seems as though we have neglected to focus on the rest of American mobility. Breaking down homeland securityto find the flaws and the loop holes for possible terrorist attacks, along with figuring out the statistical probability for future acts of terrorism on our land from both domestic and most importantly foreign invaders, will help the government to know what the next stages of security should be.
Trains have been around in America since the 1830’s. The first documented railroad tracks laid in Americawas only 39.8 miles long. After this, the use of railroad lines grew rapidly. Since trains first arrived on the transportation scene, there have been significant advances making them faster and more efficient. Some can be operated unmanned and some are even rail-less using magnetism as a form of energy! The United States uses trains to transport everything from agricultural goods, food and equipment to people. Anyone with the correct amount of coinage can ride a train for a day or they can get a monthly pass. When entering a train, bags are hardly ever checked, if ever, and carry-on luggage is always welcomed. While you ride on the train you will hear the occasional audible pre recorded voice echo throughout the train cars, “Please take all baggage belonging to you when leaving the train.” I believe that this message is so that if anything is left behind on the train it would be considered suspicious and Metra or Amtrak could take further action if and when necessary. You will see all walks of life on the train; from your average business man or women, to single mothers, to the everyday college student who commutes to and from home, work andschool. On the other hand, you will also see drug dealers, rapists and many other people who may look like normal day to day people, but have other plans that could be detrimental to the safety of the other riders.
It seems that the department of homeland security has yet to really influence train transport. I have yet to see any rail marshals, metal detectors or anything that would deter a person from using a train as a means to an end in the form terrorism. This doesn’t mean trains have not been used in terroristic activities. Train targets are plentiful and up till now minimally protected, as previously stated they are compact and combustible allowing for maximum carnage with high amount of probable collateral damage. The news is an excellent example of this and will show that even if we do have officers on trains, terrorism attacks are still possible.
Hereare several documents that help to prove this point. One such document is on the web-site known as the Transportation Security Administration Office of Intelligence Mass Transit System Threat Assessment. This document was developed and written by the department of Homeland Security for the specific purpose of analyzing trains and possible terrorist threats, “At this time, there is no credible intelligence regarding specific plans by any extremist groups or individuals to perpetrate an act of terrorism against the U.S. mass transit system. The U.S. mass transit and passenger rail systems are vulnerable to terrorist attacks because they are accessible to large numbers of the public and are notoriously difficult to secure.” Also found in this article are examples of undeniable acts of terrorism, all occurring on trains,
2in India February of 2007: Kashmiri extremists placed six suitcases IID’s (improvised incendiary devices) in three cars of the ‘Friendship Express’ passenger train traveling to Pakistan from India. Four of the six IID’s ignited and caused fires in two passenger cars, killing 68 and injuring 13. In July 2006: Seven bombs exploded over a span of 15 minutes on the Mumbai Suburban Railway system, killing 187 and injuring more than 700. In the United Kingdom during July of 2005: Four suicide bombers attacked the London Underground subway systems and a double-decker bus during morning rush hour. 52 people were killed and 700 injured. Two weeks later around 12 noon, four young Islamic extremists in London attempted to conduct bombings similar to the earlier attacks in this same month containing IED’s (improvised explosive devices) made from peroxide-based explosives. In Spain March 2004: Explosions on four Madrid commuter trains during the morning rush hour killed 191 passengers and injured more than 1,800. Finally in Russia December 2003: An explosion aboard a commuter train near Yessentuki, northwest of Chechnya, killed 41 people and injured more than 150. Russian officials blamed a Chechen suicide bomber for the attack.
These are all great examples of times when a train has been used in order to cause death and destruction. Though these events have taken place over seas and throughout other countries and trains have not yet been used in The United States of America for terrorism, it does not give our country the right to shrug off or ignore these horrific incidents. It’s the reason why the United States intervened on D-Day during WWII, because we didn’t want Mussolini, Hitler and his Nazis to take over and aggressively push their control over all European countries. It’s the reason why we make our presence known in other countries. America does this to maintain her status as a policing power of the world. This also helps us to maintain our status as one of the most powerful military influences in the world. That along with the fact that we have the most bombs helps us to maintain our superior security level.
Even though there is no evidence to date linking these acts to terrorism, Al-Qaida is reportedly interested in producing compact chemical dispersal devices. The device is called a mubtakar for disseminating cyanogens chloride and hydrogen cyanide. It is considered efficient in enclosed spaces and could be effective if used in a subways, cars and underground rail stations. It is important for Homeland Security to take a proactive approach in order to prevent tragedies like 9-11. We must train officers so that when they are in the field they know what to look for before the personal chemistry sets come out to play. Suspicious activity can always help law enforcement and security officials identify unusual behavior, trends, patters, and possible criminal acts. This will only help us if we know what to look for, of course.
Changing gears now and turning our attention to the most widely used form of transport know to the world as the automobile. Some sort of a form of a car was created as early as 1769 by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, but most people who you would talk to on the street would say Henry Ford was the creator. Wikipedia, a widely used information source stated, 3“Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was the American founder of the Ford Motor Company and father of modern assembly lines used in mass production. Ford’s introduction of the Model Tautomobile revolutionized transportation and American industry and created what would soon revolutionize the car juggernaut.” Since this time the automobile has become the cornerstone of American mobility. As teenagers we all looked forward to the freedoms that having a license to drive could give us, but many times we fail to remember the dangers that come along with the responsibility.
Societies drive their automobiles for just as many, if not more purposes, as the train or plane. Along with this, the lethality of accidents in cars verses in trainsis significantly higher and totals per year of car accident mortality are much higher than in train accidents. This is exactly why we have police and are required by law carry car insurance so that people don’t do anything excessively destructive while on the road. The automobile can also take many forms;as long as you have the right parts to make it a legally functioning machine you can carry, move, remove, aid and destroy pretty much anything. Taking a larger concern for the security approach to the car is a very important step our government needs to take. Lately, in the news car bombs are becoming a more predominate headline that is highlighted for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The majority of these bombings takes place overseas and are used to target churches, office buildings, medical clinics, and military bases, typically American facilities.
When talking about car bombings and bring to our attention the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, it is important to take a moment and define what a car bomb is, 4“Acar bomb is an improvised explosive device placed in a car or other vehicle and then detonated.” They are most commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupants of the vehicle, people near the blast site, or to damage buildings or other property. Car bombs act as their own delivery mechanisms and can carry a relatively large amount of explosives without attracting suspicion; in larger vehicles, they can weigh up to 1000 pounds. Car bombs are activated in a large variety of ways, including the opening of the vehicle door, activation of the car ignition,andapplying pressure on the brake and or acceleration pedals.
TheOklahoma City bombing was all over the news and until the 9/11 attack, it was one of the deadliest actsof terrorism on U.S. soil to date. 5“the man that carried out this terrible act of domestic terrorism was 26-year-old Timothy McVeigh. Shortly after the explosion, Oklahoma State Trooper Charlie Hanger stopped him for driving without a license plate and was arrested for that offense and for unlawfully carrying a weapon. Within days, McVeigh and Terry Nichols were both arrested for their roles in the bombing. Investigators determined that they were sympathizers of a militia movement and that their motive was to retaliate against the government's handling of the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents and the bombing ironically occurred on the anniversary of the Waco incident.” McVeigh was executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001 while Nichols was sentenced to life in prison. A third conspirator, Michael Fortier, who testified against McVeigh and Nichols, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for failing to warn the U.S. government. As with other large scale terrorist attacks, conspiracy theories dispute the official claims and point to additional perpetrators involved.